Always the same arguments are used to justify invasion of privacy by governments: terrorism, pedo-pornography, human trafficking for sex (especially children).
Which are solid arguments but of course those laws are in 95% of the cases used for everything but the 3 reasonable causes mentioned.
Moreover, most of the time, the law grants access to police without decision by a judge, in the name of efficiency. In France, the proposal to trace what information is accessed by each policewoman or policeman has been rejected. So the misuses of the police databases are daily occurrences with total immunity.
Who knows what are the misuses of NSA databases in the US. I don't know at least but I don't think the Americans' privacy is an issue among NSA staff, nor for Congress. I may be totally wrong and would be happy to be enlightened on the matter.
>> - Forbids strong encryption at rest. Failing to cooperate in decryption can also yield imprisonment.
> What the fuck?
I mean, Britain already has the second part, and in France failing to cooperate in decryption of your own stuff is an aggravating circumstance (but at least not a separate offense if you otherwise haven’t or can’t be proven to have done anything wrong).
(It’s still extremely short-sighted, just pointing out where the Overton window is at.)
It's an opportunity really. Preemptively put any information related to these politicians out in the open -- names, credit cards, whatever -- and cite this bill; you're assisting law enforcement by ensuring the data can be readily decrypted.
What the fuck?